Silica-encapsulated nanomagnetic particle as a new recoverable biocatalyst carrier

Enzymes are versatile biocatalysts with major advantages of ultrahigh reaction selectivity and specificity under mild conditions, which currently find increasing applications. However, their applications are often hampered by difficulties in recovery and recycling. As a result, we carried out detailed investigations on the synthesis and characterization of silica-encapsulated iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles of controlled dimension as an enzyme carrier. It is shown that the relatively smaller sized silica-coated magnetic nanoparticle prepared by the microemlusion technique can a carry bulky enzyme, beta-lactamase, via chemical linkages on the silica overlayer without severely blocking the enzymatic active center (which is commonly encountered in conventional solid supports). An activity study by Michalis-Menten kinetics reflects that this new type of immobilization allows enzyme isolation with accessibility as good as free enzyme. The recovery and reusability of the nanoparticle-supported enzyme upon application of magnetic separation are also demonstrated.     

Rovibrational spectra of the N2-HF complex at the vHF=3 level

We report the analyses of the three intermolecular combination bands of the hydrogen-bonded N2-HF complex at vHF=3, observed by molecular beam intracavity laser induced fluorescence. The origin of the HF intermolecular bending combination band, (3001(1)0)<--(00000), is 11 548.45(3) cm(-1), 328.2 cm(-1) higher than that of the (30000)<--(00000) transition with an origin at 11 220.250(1) cm(-1). The average rotational constant of the (3001(1)0) level is 0.103 63(1) cm(-1), a 4.8% reduction from B(30000)=0.109 21(1) cm(-1). Perturbations are observed as line splittings, increased line widths, and reduced peak intensities of a number of lines of the e and f components of (3001(1)0). In addition, the centrifugal distortion coefficients of both components are large, negative, and different. The N2 intermolecular bend transition (30001(1))<--(00000) has an origin at 11 288.706(1) cm(-1), 68.456(2) cm(-1) above that of the (30000)<--(00000) transition. This is the lowest combination state at v(HF)=3 level. It is unperturbed, yielding B(30001(1))=0.110.10(1) cm(-1). The transition to the intermolecular stretching state, (30100)<--(00000), has an origin at 11 318.858(1) cm(-1) with B(30100)=0.105 84(1) cm(-1). Both the (30100) and (30000) levels show an isolated perturbation at J=4. The Lorentzian component of the line widths, which show considerable variation with soft mode, are GammaL(30000)=490(30) MHz, GammaL(30100)=630(30) MHz, GammaL(3001(1)0)=250(30) MHz, and GammaL(30001(1))=500(50) MHz.     

Formate as a Surface Probe for Ruthenium Nanoparticles in Solution 13C NMR Spectroscopy

Formic acid adsorption on ruthenium nanoparticles of different sizes allows differentiation of differently bound formate species by solution ¹³C NMR spectroscopy (see picture). The chemical shifts are comparable to those of organometallic analogues, thus indicating that formate can act as a probe to distinguish surface features of metallic nanoparticles in solution with good quantification and resolution.

     

Adaptive backstepping sliding mode control for chaos synchronization of two coupled neurons in the external electrical stimulation

In this paper, a robust control system combining backstepping and sliding mode control techniques is used to realize the synchronization of two gap junction coupled chaotic FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) neurons in the external electrical stimulation. A backstepping sliding mode approach is applied firstly to compensate the uncertainty which occur in the control system. However, the bound of uncertainty is necessary in the design of the backstepping sliding mode controller. To relax the requirement for the bound of uncertainty, an adaptive backstepping sliding mode controller with a simple adaptive law to adapt the uncertainty in real time is designed. The adaptive backstepping sliding mode control system is robust for time-varying external disturbances. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the control scheme.     

Broadband single-walled carbon nanotubes absorber for solid-state ultrafast lasers

The single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) absorber was fabricated by vertical evaporation method. Mode-locked picosecond Nd-doped solid-state lasers operating at 1.00 and 1.34 ??m and Tm-doped solid-state laser at 2 ??m with SWCNT absorbers were demonstrated, respectively. Watt-level average output powers of continuous wave mode locking were obtained. The operational bandwidth of 1 ??m is broader than other saturable absorbers fabricated by using other types of materials.     

The Immuno-Modulatory Activities of Pentaherbs Formula on Ovalbumin-Induced Allergic Rhinitis Mice via the Activation of Th1 and Treg Cells and Inhibition of Th2 and Th17 Cells

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a highly prevalent allergic disease induced by immunoglobulin (Ig) E-mediated hypersensitivity reaction at the nasal epithelium against inhaled allergens. Previous studies have demonstrated that Pentaherbs formula (PHF), a modified herbal formula comprising five herbal medicines (Flos Lonicerae, Herba Menthae, Cortex Phellodendri, Cortex Moutan and Rhizoma Atractylodis), could suppress various immune effector cells to exert anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects in allergic asthma and atopic dermatitis. The present study aimed to further determine the anti-inflammatory activities of PHF in an ovalbumin (OVA)-induced AR BALB/c mouse model. Nasal symptoms such as sneezing and nose rubbing were recorded and the serum total IgE and OVA-specific IgG1, as well as interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, chemokines CXCL9 CXCL10, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α concentrations in nasal lavage fluid (NALF) were measured during different treatments. Effects of PHF on the expression of inflammatory mediators in the sinonasal mucosa were quantified using real-time QPCR. PHF was found to suppress allergic symptoms, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and hyperplasia of goblet cells in the nasal epithelium of the OVA-induced AR mice. PHF could reduce OVA-specific IgG1 level in serum, and TNF-α and IL-10 in nasal lavage fluid (NALF), significantly up-regulate the splenic regulatory T (Treg) cell level, increase the Type 1 helper T cell (Th1)/Type 2 helper T cell (Th2) ratio, and reduce the Th17 cells (all p < 0.05). PHF could also alleviate in situ inflammation in sinonasal mucosa of OVA-induced AR mice. In conclusion, oral treatment of PHF showed immuno-modulatory activities in the OVA-induced AR mice by regulating the splenic T cell population to suppress the nasal allergy symptoms and modulating inflammatory mediators, implicating that PHF could be a therapeutic strategy for allergic rhinitis.     

From chemical structure to viscoelastic properties of polymers

The basic result of the coupling model consists of a cross-over from exp-(t/τ_o) to exp-(t/τ*)^1-n at a temperature insensitive microscopic time t_c. We indicate how this basic result can be derived from chaotic, interacting Hamiltonian systems which include densely packed polymer molecules. Recent quasielastic neutron scattering experiments and molecular dynamics simulations are discussed and the results are shown to support this result as well. An application of the coupling model to find how the viscoelasticity of a polymer depends on the chemical structure of the monomer through the coupling parameter of the local segmental motion is given to illustrate the utility of the model.     

Analysis of the H-Plane T-Junction Millimeter Wave Waveguide Circulator with a Ferrite Sphere

This paper presents an approximate but efficient field treatment of the new easy-to-fabricate ferrite sphere based H-plane waveguide circulator for potentially low-cost millimeter wave communication systems. A new three-dimension modeling strategy using a self-inconsistent mixed coordinates based mode matching technique is developed, i.e. the solutions of the Helmholz wave equations in the ferrite sphere and in the surrounding areas are deduced in the form of infinite summation of spherical, cylindrical and general Cartesian modes respectively. The point matching method is then used on the interface to numerically obtain the coefficients of different orders basis functions of the field. Therefore, the field distributions as well as the characteristics of the circulator are numerically calculated and the good agreement is observed between the numerical results and the measured data.